Libraries and Archives Leave International Copyright Discussions Empty Handed After Countries Again Fail to Reach Agreement

Discussions regarding an international copyright instrument for libraries and archives again collapsed inconclusively at the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR) in Geneva, from Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July. In the early hours of Saturday 5 July, Member States finally “agreed to disagree” on any conclusions on copyright exceptions for libraries and archives, as well as a draft treaty for broadcasting.

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Two days during the week’s discussions were focused on copyright exceptions for libraries and archives, this time working through the US-proposed “principles” (non-binding) approach. While Member States worked relatively constructively through the US principles during the time they had, its failure to address the growing cross border challenges facing libraries and archives in the digital environment was brought up repeatedly by countries including India, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa and Bangladesh. A number of Member States, including the EU, continued to insist that domestic copyright exceptions and the existing international framework was sufficient to meet the problems described by libraries and archives.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.